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Seabird
06-May-08, 21:12
Found in larger Herds than the Roe deer and also a much larger animal.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e307/seabird72/RedDeer9-4-07a.jpg

Seabird
18-Feb-09, 22:19
This evening at 5pm while travelling the Rumster Road from the A9 across to Lybster i came across 60+ Red deer.
The herd was mostly young stags with just a couple of mature males and about a dozen females.
I've seen Red deer on many occasions on this stretch of road but never in any thing like these numbers.
Needless to say i left a camera at work and the other at home.

Colin

dragonfly
18-Feb-09, 23:25
thats a shame you never had your camera with you Seabird. Fantastic pic of the stag, very noble.

When we came up the road a fortnight ago we saw lots of herds of red deer wandering around the hills, but to see that amount so close up must have been magical and frustrating at not having your camera!!

ellimac
19-Feb-09, 12:42
What a lovely picture above, they sure are magnificent animals.... I have always found them great to look at and to watch.... :D

Seabird
21-Feb-09, 01:10
I took that one from the car window on a trip across Forsinard last summer, they were in their hundreds. This one stepped out of the woods at just the right moment and I had the camera ready

Thumper
21-Feb-09, 18:07
This evening at 5pm while travelling the Rumster Road from the A9 across to Lybster i came across 60+ Red deer.
The herd was mostly young stags with just a couple of mature males and about a dozen females.
I've seen Red deer on many occasions on this stretch of road but never in any thing like these numbers.
Needless to say i left a camera at work and the other at home.

Colin

Hi Colin I travelled down the causewaymire on Sunday the 15th and just across from where they cut the peats there were lots of them,must have been around 50 at least!Great sight to see! x

kas
21-Feb-09, 22:56
Dont think I have seen that photo before. Nice one.

Errogie
21-Feb-09, 22:59
I don't think I've ever seen a "herd" of roe deer.

Haweswater
01-May-09, 20:21
Roe deer will not be found in herds. At the very most one might observe a family group comprising a buck, doe and fawn(s).

All deer, other than caribou/reindeer are essentially forest animals. Red deer adapted to life on the open hill over centuries in the face of a gradual demise of large tracts of woodland. Roe deer, by contrast, remain forest dwellers.

When the opportunity arises (e.g. when afforested areas attain maturity so that browsing deer no longer pose a threat to growing timber) Red deer will return to their natural habitat of woodland.

Magnificant as it may be to catch a glimpse of a herd, the growth in population of Red deer during the last 25 years has had an unfortunate impact on attempts throughout the Highlands to encourage natural regeneration of native pine and birch woods - which in turn would lead to enhanced biodiversity. Further to that, previously well managed herds on Highland estates ensured a very healthy stock of beasts. Given the decline in the number of professional stalkers and appropriate management of deer forests (not necessarily a wooded area), the overall health of Scotland's Red deer stock is in question.

Red deer, other than when calves (when Golden eagles and foxes can strike), have no natural predators - only Man. Owing to our destruction of prey species such as the wolf and lynx, we have had to manage the deer populations. That's what happens when we upset the balance of nature - one species can so easily dominate at the expense of others.

Seabird
01-May-09, 23:29
you are correct in saying that Roe deer don't gather in herds.
I was using the dictionary meaning of herd "group of animals feeding and living together"
It might have been better to use the words "Smaller Groups".
I did observe a group at Loch May, it consisted of 2 males and 6 females.

Colin